Promoting Religious Freedom in Malaysia

(RV - 27 July 2010) A Malaysian court today fined 12 Muslims and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow's head.

The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia's three main ethnic groups _ the Malay Muslim majority and the Chinese and Indian minorities (most of them Buddhists, Christians or Hindus).

Fr Lawrence Andrew is the editor of Malaysia’s Catholic weekly, Herald. He told us that the outcome of the trial demonstrates the government’s attitude toward minorities.